An ant on the move does more than a slumbering ox

The Seven Years War game being played at James' reached a conclusion last night, which he has documented here. To my astonishment it was actually quite a close finish, prompting a bit of reflection on how I could have performed that little fraction better. I'd taken the view that as I was probably going to lose anyway I should issue morale challenges at every opportunity in the hope of the dice being with me. Maybe if I'd been more discriminating and shepherded my morale chips, I could have just edged it? We shall never know; the question is, - how can I put this? - rhetorical. One other thought, there were perhaps eight cavalry melees of which I won one. If I had won four out of eight I'd probably have won overall. Excellent game though, and I still prefer the dominoes to D20s.

In other wargaming news, I continue to paint at an excruciatingly slow pace, which might be acceptable if I was also painting to a reasonable standard. I have completed yet more Roman civilians, including a road building crew and an ox cart, plus a whole four Roman auxiliary cavalry. I've also been working on a scratch-built Roman marching fort to sit on the edge of the table and act as the source of reinforcements in the 'Romans in Britain' rip-off of 'Pony Wars'. I've adopted a prefabrication technique that, on the plus side, has led to relatively quick assembly, but on the down side has led to some parts not being quite as perpendicular as one would wish. Still, in the glorious traditions of wargaming at Casa Epictetus, it will do.

There has been the usual boardgaming, this week featuring Doodle City, Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Hanabi. I can only describe the first by saying that it did my head in. Following half an hour or so of rolling dice and marking up my pad (it's a sort of turbo-charged Beetle Drive), the only thing of which I am certain is that we were all playing by different rules. The second game is one that I have played and enjoyed before and my pleasure this time was heightened by the fact that I won quite handily. The last is a rare creature indeed: a co-operative game that I liked and would play again.